President Barack Obama is finally doing what he’s been telling Americans to do all summer: He’s spending time with his family on the Gulf Coast.

His brief visit is less a relaxing, presidential vacation than it is an all-inclusive business trip. In fewer than 27 hours in Panama City, Fla., Obama will meet with business owners about the lingering impact of the BP oil spill, deliver a speech at the U.S. Coast Guard office and star in a series of photo-ops intended to jolt the region’s sagging tourism industry.

In fact, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs denied the visit was a “vacation” at all. “This was originally billed as, and continues to be billed as, highlighting the notion that a region of the country that is heavily dependent upon tourism is alive, well, and open for business,” he said in his daily briefing Friday.

For the White House, the image of the president, the first lady and their daughters on a Gulf Coast beach, showing the region is safe and clean, is the real keepsake of the trip. It’s what Florida officials have wanted for months. And while they would like the Obamas to get more than just a little sand in their shoes, they’ll take the one night they’re getting.

“I would love to have them stay a couple more days, but we’re just thankful they’re coming,” said Panama City Mayor Scott Clemons. “I just hope they spend some time on the beach.”

It’s rare for the White House to tout a presidential event as a photo op, but on this occasion, that’s part of its defense against criticism that Obama’s trip is too short. The president’s aides are banking that one day is enough to get the Gulf-Coast-is-open message across.

“I don’t necessarily think the message gets markedly more compelling [after] five days than it does two days,” Gibbs told POLITICO.

The Obamas were to arrive in Panama City on Saturday morning and head back to Washington on Sunday afternoon.

Their time in the area is mostly unscheduled. The president and first lady Michelle Obama will host a roundtable discussion with business and tourism officials Saturday afternoon to discuss the economic blow the oil spill has been to the region.

In his speech, the president will talk about the next phase of the disaster, now that the leak has been stopped. Obama will be joined by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, whom he has charged with overseeing long-term restoration for the Gulf Coast.

The rest of the Obamas’ stay will involve giving a presidential boost to some Florida tourism spots.

“It’ll be a mix,” Gibbs said.

The Gulf Coast visit comes amid criticism of how the Obamas have been spending their summer.

The president took heat for jetting off to Maine for a weekend with his family, while encouraging others to visit the Gulf Coast (the White House later announced the Florida trip). More recently, Michelle Obama has come under fire for her vacation with friends at a five-star resort in Costa del Sol, Spain.

Little headlines began to pile up, too: a six-mile Marine One flight, a birthday dinner with Oprah, traveling with a caretaker for the first dog, Bo, who totes the pup onto the plane and loads him into an SUV. Taken together, it created a narrative that Obama appeared to be falling prey to a common malady among presidents, in which they move within the bubble and lose touch with behavior that looks acceptable to average Americans.

“There are times when they seem to be playing checkers instead of chess, and they could recognize these little things,” said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who worked in the Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations.

One night in Panama City before spending 10 days in Martha’s Vineyard hasn’t helped combat any building perception problem. The Gulf Coast trip seemed almost grudging.

In recent days, the White House has fielded a barrage of questions about why the president is spending just one night.

“They’ve already spent a lot of time in the Gulf,” deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton told reporters Tuesday.

In Florida, a key state for Obama’s reelection campaign, the reception of the visit matters most.

Democrats in the state have criticized the president for telling others to visit to the Gulf Coast while he vacations elsewhere. Those like state Rep. Bill Heller, an early Obama supporter who was upset over the president’s trip to Maine, appear to be welcoming his Panama City stop with a take-what-we-can-get attitude, especially the when it comes to the photos.

“If it’s good enough for the first family to visit, it’s good enough for the rest of the country to visit: I’m hoping that it gets a lot of marketability that way,” Heller said. “If there’s a deficit or a downer maybe it’s only because it isn’t long enough. We would like to have him longer.”